Honors Ensemble Archive

Since the 1970s, the NEC Honors Ensemble program has offered a springboard for student groups to become a permanent, professional ensemble—with a showcase performance in NEC's Jordan Hall—one of the world's top concert halls. (Until 1983, Honors Ensembles were called "Scholarship Ensembles" to indicate the stipend they receive for their service to NEC.)

Information about past Honors Ensembles are archived to these pages. Find information about the current Honors Ensembles here.

Honors Ensemble: Les Six

Les Six was founded on the impetus of the group’s pianist, Linda Edsinga, in an effort to devise a chamber group to be coached by the legendary John Heiss. With no time to spare, Linda assembled a group of five other musicians, including Jessie Boyd, Emily Prather, Andrew Port, Luis Diaz and Adam Floyd. As rehearsals began and John Heiss provided his guidance, the six musicians brought together found themselves easily capable of playing with one another and playing through repertoire at a rapid rate. Although they had never worked together before, they quickly developed a rapport as friends and colleagues, as well as a cohesive sound that stunned listeners. The decision to compete for the Conservatory’s Honors Competition was made early, and the group worked with determination to meet the deadline of the audition. With the payoff of a successful audition in hand, the sextet now set out to perform a harder task: Picking a name. Careful consideration was given to several possibilities, but they soon decided on Les Six (The Six), in honor of Francis Poulenc, the composer of the very first piece they performed.

Since then, Les Six has enjoyed learning a variety of repertoire for their ensemble, reveling in the unique opportunities presented for such a dynamic instrumentation, and looks forward to a long future of music making together.

Honors Ensemble: OWL Riot

Daniel Orsen, Hope Wilk, and Bo Lee were first brought together by John Heiss in the winter of 2017 to perform Sofia Gubaidulina's "Garden of Joy and Sorrow," and had the great fortune of working with the composer in preparation for the concert.The trio reassembled in the fall with Mai Motobuchi as coach, and were selected as one of New England Conservatory’s 2017-2018 Honors Ensembles. Thus, they were faced with their most daunting task of choosing a name. For a few weeks the trio had settled in with the working name of "Pink Shark," inspired by an awesome shirt that Dan wears on festive occasions. Unfortunately, after several weeks of running the name by people, it was recognized by one single person as a naughty euphemism (but truly, isn't one of the glories of the English language that anything can be a euphemism if one wants it to be?). OWL Riot was eventually alighted upon because they are a hoot. The trio is in their second year of graduate studies at NEC. Their individual accomplishments and activities include; prizes at the Pappoutsakis Memorial Flute Competition, South Carolina Flute Society's Young Artist Competition, and ASTA National Solo Competition; festival appearances at Ravinia, Sick Puppy, and Bang on a Can; and occasional subbing with the Philadelphia Orchestra and dabbling in the Dark Arts/CI Ensembles.

Natives of China, Germany, and the United States, the members of the Tempest Quartet all currently study at the New England Conservatory, where their teachers include Donald Weilerstein, Dimitri Murrath, and Laurence Lesser. The name “Tempest” was chosen because of the stormy and tumultuous nature of the pieces that first brought them together, Haydn’s Divertimento in f minor, Op. 20 No. 5 and Mendelssohn’s Op. 13 String Quartet in a minor. Formed in September 2017, the ensemble has already received instruction from prominent chamber musicians such as Merry Peckham, Donald Weilerstein, Ayano Ninomiya, and Joel Krosnick

Members of the quartet are prizewinners of the Fischoff and M-Prize chamber music competitions as well as laureates of solo competitions located in Guangzhou, Hamburg, Fermo, and Gorizia. They have also appeared at distinguished festivals such as Aspen Music Festival, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Kronberg Academy Masterclasses, Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, Pyeongchang Festival, and Rheingau Music Festival. The Tempest String Quartet strongly believes in the idea of using chamber music as a force to connect with and empower individuals.

Honors Ensemble: Trio Mirage

Trio Mirage formed in September 2017 over a mutual love of Brahms and beer. They have performed over two times at the New England Conservatory, and have played in a masterclass. They are thrilled to be working with Laurence Lesser.